Advice and Consent

Floor Speech

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Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, the Senate is focused on one of its constitutional roles right now, which is meeting with and discussing with the new Biden administration's Cabinet--our advice and consent role. The consent role, obviously, is confirmation votes here on the floor of the U.S. Senate, which we are doing a number of these on the floor and in committee. But there is also the advice role, given to us by the Founding Fathers. On the advice, we are providing whether we vote for some of these nominees or not to the Cabinet. It is a big part of the Senate's role. So I am going to take a minute to provide a little bit of advice to some of the new, incoming Biden team.

Now, look, we are seeing it particularly in the foreign policy realm. A lot of the Biden team has actually come from the Obama-Biden team-- maybe too many. You worry about stale thinking, because when they were in power 4 years ago, or a little bit over 4 years ago, there are a lot of things that have changed in the world--particularly on foreign policy, a lot that has happened in the world. So you need fresh views, but we are where we are.

But an example of this kind of stale thinking that I was shocked to see recently at the White House is the use of the term ``strategic patience'' as a foreign policy concept. Now, this was the phrase the Obama administration used to describe its policy toward North Korea, and I think most people would recognize--Democrats and Republicans-- that that was not a very successful policy, a pretty failed policy.

Now, granted, North Korea is difficult. There is no doubt. But the policy that was known as strategic patience was the policy that enabled the North Korea rogue regime to massively build up a nuclear arsenal. So kind of like leading from behind, the Obama administration's term ``strategic patience'' became synonymous with a passive and even weak foreign policy approach as it related to North Korea, certainly.

So I was very surprised yesterday to hear the White House Press Secretary trot out this term again, ``strategic patience,'' but this time when talking about the Biden administration's policy with regard to China.

Now, this is almost certainly music to China's ears--the leadership of China--because it is kind of a subtle green light to Xi Jinping and the other authoritarians in China of its failure to uphold promise after promise to the United States--something I refer to as ``promise fatigue'' that we have here--or continuing to call itself a developing country, when it is not, or continuing its attempts to dominate the South China Sea with the militarization of that important strategic sea lane, or continuation of intellectual property theft, or all the challenges that we have with China. The idea that we are going to have strategic patience, I think, sends a signal to the Chinese that we don't take these issues urgently, and that is the wrong message. These are urgent issues.

In my discussions during the confirmation process and in hearings with now-Secretary of Defense Austin and Secretary of State Blinken, I sensed they had a sense of urgency. As a matter of fact, they both acknowledged that the previous administration--the Trump administration's national security strategy, national defense strategy that says we need to turn to great power competition, with China as the pacing threat for the United States, they agreed with.

Even in General Austin's--now-Secretary Austin's--confirmation hearing, one of my colleagues, Senator Blackburn, actually said this term, ``strategic patience,'' doesn't seem to be the right term and pressed him on it.

So here is some continued advice. In the Senate's role, in terms of our constitutional role of advice and consent, words matter, especially from the White House podium. We need a strong, bipartisan, and lasting China policy from the United States of America. This is the biggest geostrategic issue we will be facing as a country for the next 50 to 100 years, but it is also a challenge that is here and now, a challenge that needs immediate action. So here is my advice: Ditch the ``strategic patience'' phrase.

The vast majority of the Senators in this body, Democrats and Republicans, want to know the Biden administration is focused on this challenge now. It is a serious challenge that China poses to the United States now, and ``strategic patience'' sends the wrong message to the Senate, to the American people, and to China's leadership. So they need to do better.

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